


Plebians

by ToxicPineapple



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Aromantic Maizono Sayaka, But Chihiro is a trans girl, Conversations, Developing Relationships, Fluff, Fluffy, Friendly banter, Friendship, Gen, Hugs, Implied Aromantic Character, Implied Relationships, It's not relevant to the plot and in fact never comes up even once, Lighthearted, Past Romantic Feelings, Platonic Relationships, SO, Suck my gargantuan penis, Summer Vacation, Trans Fujisaki Chihiro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 20:14:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21021614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple
Summary: “If that’s how you feel,” Sayaka shrugs. “Then I guess I won’t try and stop you. Everyone is going to be hugging each other and saying goodbye, though. Naegi will be upset if you’re not there.” She turns around, starting back over to the entrance to the main hall so that she can grab her suitcase and head out to meet everyone. She’s already late, and if Byakuya’s not coming, then she figures she shouldn’t spend any more time here talking to him. If he’s going to be a jerk, then he is. No reason to dwell on it. She hooks her fingers around the handle of her suitcase and starts into the main hall.After a few moments, though, the footsteps resume, a bit more quickly then before, and when Sayaka turns her head, she sees that Byakuya is walking at her side.---The class of 78 exchanges goodbyes before leaving for summer vacation. (Also, Byakuya and Sayaka briefly talk about hugs.)





	Plebians

Sayaka sits down on her bed one last time, going through her suitcase to double-check that she has everything. She’s not packing up  _ entirely,  _ of course; it would be silly to take everything away with her when she’s just going to be coming back to Hope’s Peak when summer is over, but she’d like to have a fair amount of her things with her this summer. Her little guitar tuner, for example. It would suck to go through the summer, which is packed with performances starting tomorrow, without it. Not that Sayaka doesn’t have good pitch, but she doesn’t have  _ perfect  _ pitch, which means she needs the tuner. It’s a bit annoying, to be honest. She’d like to be able to hum a note and know for a fact that it’s F#, rather than having to trail down to C to figure it out.

It seems like there’s everything. She pulls the suitcase so that it’s standing up but leaves it there momentarily, moving over to the bathroom and peeking inside at her reflection in the mirror. It’s so strange not wearing the uniform on a Monday morning, but she’s blinking at herself in a blue sweater and a darker blue skirt that reaches about mid-calf. (She’s willing to wear whatever on stage, but on her own time she tends to dress rather conservatively. Besides, even though it’s summer, it’s pretty cold today, and she doesn’t want to be shivering outside while she’s saying goodbye to everyone and waiting for her agent to come pick her up.)

She ends up smiling at herself, though. It’s rare that she actually gets to see her own face without makeup. Today is going to be long and slow but full of driving, so it won’t matter. She’s looking forward to it, actually! She sees her friends all the time, but she’s excited to spend a few months with them and them alone.

Not that she doesn’t love all her friends at Hope’s Peak. She does. Makoto especially- she’s never had a guy friend as good as he is, before! It was a little awkward at first, when he had a crush on her, but she’s glad he was able to move past that. She doesn’t want their friendship to be tainted by things like that. Especially when she’s not even allowed to date, being an idol and all. (She’s not  _ too  _ hung up on it, though. Sayaka doesn’t feel like she’s ready for a relationship right now. Or ever.)

A quick glance at the clock in her room tells her that she’s definitely keeping everyone waiting outside, because they’ll want to say goodbye to all of their classmates before heading out, so Sayaka quickly turns off the light in the bathroom, and subsequently her bedroom, before grabbing her suitcase. She pauses for a long moment, then draws the curtains in her dorm room, allowing the sunlight to spill into the room. When she gets back at the end of the summer, she wants to look into her room and see it tinted orange by the light of all the leaves, just like it was after last year’s summer vacation. A small smile touches her face, and she turns around, dragging her suitcase out and locking the door behind her.

It’s weird for her to be moving so quickly when the halls are so empty. Makoto will definitely be the last one out (he’s like, chronically late, or something- talk about unlucky) but it seems the majority of their other classmates have already arrived outside. Kyoko even left yesterday, because she’s taken an international case. She’s pretty incredible! Sayaka really admires her, even if it seems like Kyoko isn’t all that fond of her. She loves detective novels (though she’s never smart enough to piece together the murder before it’s revealed to the reader) and Kyoko is pretty much like a character right out of one of those. She’s so cool.

Brushing the thoughts to the side so she doesn’t get distracted, Sayaka turns the corner and starts towards the main hall. Before she reaches the end of the hallway, though, she notices that the school isn’t entirely empty. There are footsteps off to her right. She turns her head, wondering if that’s Makoto, and to her surprise, her gaze lands on Byakuya, one of her classmates.

They’re not too close, but Sayaka thinks beneath his cool exterior, he really cares for everyone in the class. There was a time late in their first year (which was just last year, actually) when Chihiro- another one of their classmates, and also one of Sayaka’s closest friends, aside from Makoto and the idols in her group- went to the hospital. She never told any of them what was going on, but everyone was worried about her, and it seemed the most evident with Byakuya. He hid it pretty well, behind his cold front and all that, but Sayaka is pretty good at seeing through things like that. She has really good intuition! He was worried sick about the programmer.

Which was honestly really sweet. So she stops, because it seems as though Byakuya is heading in the other direction. There’s an exit that way, so maybe he’s going to go through that, but the thought that he wouldn’t be going and saying goodbye to the rest of the class makes Sayaka a bit sad.

She calls out to him. “Togami!” She lifts a hand and waves, and he turns around, disguising his surprise with an annoyed sneer. That’s pretty in character, but Sayaka can pretty much see that he’s not really feeling that way. She smiles at him. “Are you not going to say goodbye to everyone?”

Byakuya gives her a long look, perhaps wondering how she figured out what he as planning, but it probably wouldn’t do him any good to ask. (Sayaka would just respond and say that she’s psychic. Anyone who knows her knows that much.) He sighs, after a moment, and shakes his head, presumably deciding not to comment. “No, I’m not.” He replies curtly. He doesn’t start walking again, though, so Sayaka leaves her suitcase there in the hall and walks over to him so they’re not calling across the hall to talk to each other. She stops a fair distance away, in the interest of respecting his personal space, and waits for him to say more. When he doesn’t, though, she takes that as her cue to speak.

“How come? I bet everyone is going to want to see you before they go.” She pauses, wondering if  _ Fukawa especially!  _ would be an appropriate thing to say to him. Perhaps not; Toko seems to make him a bit uncomfortable at times. Which is understandable, though Sayaka is somewhat desensitised to comments like that. (Being an idol, she sort of has to be. Though she certainly doesn’t  _ like  _ them.) “Are you in a hurry, or something?”

“No.” Byakuya says again, shaking his head. He peers at Sayaka through his glasses, as though wondering if it’s worth elaborating to her, and then sighs, opening his mouth once more. “I see no reason to go out of my way to say goodbye to you plebians. We’ll see each other again in a couple of months.” He shrugs, and Sayaka thinks that’s… actually pretty fair, but she frowns anyway. Makoto will be sad if Byakuya doesn’t show his face at the front in a couple minutes here.

“It’s still a couple of months, though,” Sayaka points out, but carefully, to let him know that she’s not going to try to force him either way. She  _ would  _ like him to be there, because he’s one of her classmates and she enjoys things when they’re all participating, not just a couple of them. But if he’s really going to insist on saying no, she won’t argue with him. “That’s a long time to go without seeing your friends. It couldn’t to just say goodbye quickly, could it?”   
  


“Friends? Tch.” Byakuya scoffs, and Sayaka sighs, remembering who she’s talking to. “I don’t need to waste energy interacting with the lot of you commoners for no reason.”

“If that’s how you feel,” Sayaka shrugs. “Then I guess I won’t try and stop you. Everyone is going to be hugging each other and saying goodbye, though. Naegi will be upset if you’re not there.” She turns around, starting back over to the entrance to the main hall so that she can grab her suitcase and head out to meet everyone. She’s already late, and if Byakuya’s not coming, then she figures she shouldn’t spend any more time here talking to him. If he’s going to be a jerk, then he is. No reason to dwell on it. She hooks her fingers around the handle of her suitcase and starts into the main hall.

After a few moments, though, the footsteps resume, a bit more quickly then before, and when Sayaka turns her head, she sees that Byakuya is walking at her side. She can’t help shooting him a small smile, but he just shakes his head, an irritated look on his face, which she takes as a cue to remain silent and just walk with him out to the front of the building.

There are a couple other classes outside- the two classes of third years, and the first years as well, but Sayaka immediately spots the tall, elegant form of Sakura, standing and chatting with Aoi, a smile on her face. The two are best friends (they’re practically dating, to be honest, though Sayaka doesn’t think they’re official yet) so they’ll probably spend a fair amount of time together during summer break. Aoi still looks sad, though, like she’s preparing to miss her friend.

When Sayaka reaches the group, there’s a shout of her name, and Chihiro appears in front of her, throwing her arms around her neck. The idol laughs a bit, hugging back, a sense of ease settling over her.

“I can’t believe you’ll be out of town all summer,” Chihiro sniffs when she pulls back, wiping at one of her eyes. The programmer is crying a bit, but that’s pretty normal for her. Sayaka puts a hand on the girl’s arm, smiling gently. “I’ll miss you so much! Will you be reachable over text?”

“Of course I will!” Sayaka responds, and gives a thumbs up. “I would never ghost you guys. Unless I’m performing, but I promise I’ll answer as quickly as I can whenever you text me.”

“Naegi is late, as always,” remarks Celeste, though the gambler has a small smile on her face. (She’s always smiling, though, so Sayaka doesn’t find this to be abnormal.) Despite her excellent poker face, she still seems a bit sobered. Everyone is kind of sad right now, Sayaka imagines.

“Everyone cheer up!” Kiyotaka demands, clapping his hands together. “We will be seeing each other in a couple of months, so there is no reason to be sad!”

“Yeah! And bro and I have plans to ride around the city this summer!” Mondo declares to the group at large, even though literally everyone already knows about said plans. (It’s all they’ve been talking about for the past couple of weeks. Kiyotaka and Mondo are very excited to go on this trip.) “We’ll only be stopping at libraries and hotels!”

“I get the hotels part, but why the libraries?” Leon asks, frowning. “You’re not really gonna be studying this summer, are you? Dude, that’s so lame!”

“Call my bro lame again,” Mondo, who is a self-proclaimed heterosexual, glares at Leon. “I dare you.”

“Okay! Point taken!” Leon holds his hands up in surrender.

Sayaka giggles. “What are  _ your  _ summer plans, Kuwata?” When he looks around at her, thankfully, he smiles, rather than giving her any weird looks or comments about her appearance. Just like with Makoto, it seems like Leon had a pretty big crush on her last year. It was flattering at first, but it got old pretty quickly. Sayaka is glad that they’re able to just be friends now without any awkward tensions from dating or wanting to date. She’s not so big on romantic stuff.

“Duh! There’s this hot chick who moved in next to my house!  _ I’m  _ gonna romance her.” He puffs out his chest, like he’s some big man, or something, and Sayaka finds herself laughing, because it’s probably not going to work out that way. “Hey! Don’t underestimate my man powers, Maizono!”

“I’m sure,” Sayaka manages between giggles. “That she’ll be swept away by your  _ man powers.  _ And, the way that you call her a, uhm,  _ hot chick.” _

“You’re so mean.” Leon pouts.

“There’s Naegi!” Yasuhiro calls out, and Sayaka turns her head to see her dork of a best friend coming out, a suitcase in hand. He smiles sheepishly when they all look at him, and opens his arms to the hug that Kiyotaka sends his way, and then Chihiro.

“Sorry, I lost some socks and I lost track of time looking for them.” Makoto explains, which sounds kind of lame as an excuse, but Sayaka can tell that he’s being genuine. His luck really does drag him through the dirt sometimes, doesn’t it? Poor Makoto. She smiles at him, and he smiles back, moving over to stand next to her when Chihiro pulls out of the hug.

“How did you know that you had lost the socks in the first place?” Hifumi asks, eyebrows raised. “You have strange priorities, Mister Naegi.”

“I borrowed them from my dad,” Makoto defends. “I can’t just leave them at school!”

“F-Figures that  _ Naegi  _ w-would l-leave us all waiting,” Toko stutters, fixing her glasses and glaring at him. She doesn’t seem too angry, though. Sayaka’s getting better at seeing when the writer really means things and when she’s just acting hostile in the way that she does as a way of protecting herself. Or just giving Makoto a hard time, which is probably what she’s doing now. It’s a bit unfair to him, they all make fun of him a fair amount. Makoto seems to have a history of making friends who do that, though.

“Hey!” Makoto protests. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m usually not this late!”

There’s a long pause.

“Now that’s just mean.” Makoto pouts, and Sayaka lets out a laugh, pulling him into a hug.

“It’s just how we show our love,” she reminds him, and Makoto sighs, but hugs back, smiling in that remarkably genuine way that he always does. He’s really such a sweet guy, Sayaka knows that he’ll be a great catch for whoever he ends up dating in the future.

Eventually, cars begin pulling up to the curb, and people in the group peel off. Celeste is first- it seems that the car that comes to collect her belongs to an older woman with the same inky black hair as Celeste but dark brown eyes rather than the bright red. (It makes sense, because she’s pretty sure Celeste wears contact lenses.) There is a very fat, very pampered looking cat in the back seat, and Celeste beams when she gets into the car, taking the animal into her lap.

Hifumi’s family comes next, and then Chihiro’s dad, who seems like a nice guy, though quite awkward and soft-spoken, similar to his daughter. Chihiro hugs everyone, except for Byakuya, who steps away, before she leaves. Sayaka glances at the progeny, wondering what his deal is. Not everybody likes physical contact, of course, but Byakuya has never mentioned anything like that. It seems mean to reject Chihiro, of all people, especially because Sayaka was under the impression that Byakuya was fairly fond of the programmer. Maybe it’s a personal thing for him.

Kiyotaka’s father arrives next, and Mondo goes with them- maybe they’re heading off together in anticipation of the summer they’re going to spend with each other. Kiyotaka gives hugs to a large amount of people, including Sayaka, but again Byakuya moves away. Mukuro and Junko peel off from the group without saying anything (though Mukuro nods at Makoto as she walks away) but don’t appear to be picked up by anybody. Junko gives Sayaka a goofy smile when she catches the idol watching them, and Sayaka returns it, because she and Junko have been friends for a while.

When Yasuhiro’s mom arrives, he lets out a cry of  _ “MOMMY!”  _ and runs into her arms. What a silly guy, Sayaka thinks with a snort, but she smiles when they take off. Leon’s parents drive up, and he acts annoyed to see them, taking a while to hug the classmates who are still here (except Byakuya) and getting into the car. As they drive away, though, Sayaka notices him smiling as he talks to them. Sakura’s father, a  _ very large  _ and  _ very muscular  _ man, shows up at around the same time as Aoi’s parents and brother, and so the two families leave together after Aoi hugs everybody and Sakura gives a pleasant parting smile.

Finally, it’s just Toko, Makoto, Sayaka, and Byakuya left. The next family to show up is Makoto’s- his mother, actually, and a girl with a peculiar piece of hair that stands up in the middle (just like Makoto’s) is sitting in the passenger seat. She grins, waving at Toko, and the writer grabs her bags. She must be going off with the Naegis, Sayaka thinks.

Makoto gives her another hug, and then offers one to Byakuya, who shakes his head, before heading back to the car. Toko waves, and offers a tiny smile, before getting into the car. Makoto’s sister gets out of the passenger seat to sit in the back next to Toko, and Makoto gets in shotgun, and the Naegi family pulls away.

Sayaka glances at her phone. Her agent is running a bit late, but she says she’ll be here in about three minutes. Figuring that she should talk a bit to pass the time, she glances at the progeny standing next to her. “Is your father coming to pick you up?” She asks, and Byakuya gives her a very flat look.

“Of course not. He does not trouble himself with chores such as this.” Byakuya tells her, like she’s just suggested something very stupid. (Sayaka smiles regardless.) “I have a chauffeur, and he will be here shortly.”

“Oh, of course.” Sayaka nods. “How silly of me to think your dad would be coming.” Byakuya scoffs at her, but when he looks away, he doesn’t seem very hostile. She looks at him for a long moment, curious, and then speaks again. “Can I ask you a question?”

“I suppose I can’t stop you.” Byakuya replies stiffly, and Sayaka’s upper lip curls into a smile, but she flattens it out in the interest of asking this question seriously.

“Do you not like hugs?” At that, Byakuya looks at her, his eyebrows raised, and so Sayaka elaborates. “I just noticed that you were shying away from all the physical contact just now, and I was curious. I know you don’t act like you like us most times, and that’s fair, but I was wondering if there was… more of a reason to it.”

He appraises her silently, and then shrugs. “As much as I dislike the idea of being touched by lesser beings such as yourself and the rest of our class,” he begins, crossing his arms. “I’m generally not a fan of hugs from anybody, no.” He hums. “There’s no real reason for it, I’m certainly not traumatised. I just don’t like them. Or much touch at all, really.”

“Hmm. Okay, thank you for telling me.” Sayaka nods. “If anyone tries to touch you, I’ll tell them not to.” She smiles, and then looks back at the road in front of her, peeking ahead to see if her agent is here yet. It’s been a few minutes, after all. Just as the car rolls around the corner, and Sayaka moves forward to get in, though, Byakuya clears his throat, and she pauses, looking back at him.

“Thank you,” he says stiffly, and Sayaka widens her eyes. The word sounds alien in his mouth. “It’s rare that people… understand.”

“Sure,” Sayaka responds quietly, and smiles. “I’m not a huge fan of touch sometimes either. No big deal.”

“Right. Of course.” Byakuya clears his throat, and looks away. “Have a good summer, Maizono.”

And then she feels her smile widening a bit, and she tightens her grip on her suitcase, walking backwards over to the car. The door opens for her, the doing of one of her friends inside, but she keeps looking at Byakuya until she’s standing right next to it. “Same to you, Togami.” She says, and with that, turns to put her suitcase in the trunk, and then piles into the car next to her best friend.

**Author's Note:**

> this was actually supposed to be a Sayaka and Byakuya only interaction but it.... expanded
> 
> anyway akjdshfjkabsdfjk I love these kids I've been writing them a lot lately and it feels like I'm betraying the v3 cast but to be honest... meeeh. I love these guys, what actual babies they are
> 
> also mmmm Sayaka I hated her Once but now I do sure love her. and yeah she's implied aromantic in this one because I Wanna ksdjhfds
> 
> I enjoyed writing this uhhh bye


End file.
